Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a fault diagnosis method. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a fault diagnosis method for diagnosing the location of a failure and selectively displaying the types of the failure even when a central processing unit (CPU) fails to start.
Description of the Related Art
In the event of trouble in an information processing apparatus such as a multi-functional peripheral (MFP) having functions of a copy machine, a printer, and a scanner, a service staff visits a user site to directly look into the apparatus and repairs the apparatus. In a case of a failure in starting a CPU that controls the entire information processing apparatus, the CPU cannot detect the failure or display the location of the failure. In such a case, the service staff has to do a lot of work to locate a failure spot since there is a possibility that the failure occurs in a wide range, for example, in a power supply, wiring, printed circuit boards (PCB), and data in a non-volatile memory.
Further, it is more difficult to locate the failure spot on the printed circuit board because a plurality of power supply circuits, a clock, and a reset signal generation circuit or the like are provided on the printed circuit board.
As known techniques, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-02654 discusses an information processing apparatus having an additional circuit for failure detection, the circuit being designed to operate separately from a CPU to immediately detect the failure spot during the operation of the CPU.